IDENTIFYING THE 'POLICY SEEKING' MEPs

MEPs interests are threefold: re-election, policy, and office. These three goals are everything but independent of each other , and the relative importance of the three goals is everything but equal. Re-election is the most important goal: Without re-election, there is neither office (within the legislature) nor policy (influence). And it is much harder to influence policy out of office than it is in office (e.g. by using the strategic advantages of holding an important committee chair). Hence, MEPs,  whenever they have to, give primary attention to re-election, followed by office-seeking and finally policy-seeking.

MEPs are members of party groups, and party groups possess certain privileges with respect to the internal proceedings of the EP. First of all, party groups control the committee assignments (which are distributed proportionally to the size of the party groups in the plenary) – and they have  much discretion in their decisions as there is no “seniority” rule in practice . Secondly (and this is even more important), they also control the distribution of key positions in the EP, i.e. positions in the Bureau of the EP, committee chairs and vice-chairs and rapporteurships. Again, seniority does not matter much, and again, these positions are distributed proportionally to their strength among the party groups. Within the party groups, the leadership is in a very strong position, notwithstanding tendencies to distribute the positions proportionally among the national party delegations. After all, the leadership is still left with a choice. Thus, we can conclude that the party group leadership exerts tremendous influence on the career paths of MEPs within the EP (by distributing influential committee positions and rapporteurships among their members). They decide who gets into positions of power within the EP.

MEPs pursue their goals in a complex strategic and institutional environment. There are multiple avenues for MEP action: such as attending, voting, writing reports, asking questions, joining party groups, establishing new committees, changing the rules of procedure, or becoming a leader of a committee, a national delegation, a party group or of the EP itself.

Here below is a detailed account of 'Policy seeking' MEPs and their behaviour in terms of policy, voting, party group membership, questions, committee membership, appointment to leadership positions, attendance in plenery sessions and votes, and attendance records.

Policy: Policy seeking MEPs would like outputs from the EU policy process that accord with their personal policy or ideological goals. This leads them to pursue actions in the EP that promote policy issues and legislative outcomes that are as close as possible to their ideal policy preferences (regardless of the preferences of their constituents and national parties).

Voting (under the legislative procedures, on ‘own initiative’ reports, or in Commission investiture/censure votes): Policy seeking MEPs will vote against national party positions or national interests and party group positions (if the positions are in conflict).

Party Group Membership: Policy seeking MEPs//national delegations will join party groups that are the clearest representation of their ‘party family’ in the EP.

Questions: Policy seeking MEPs will ask questions of the Commission or Council that promote the policy goals of their party group or individual policy concerns.

Committee membership: Policy seeking MEPs will seek to join committees that address issues that are those their party family would like to promote (e.g. Greens and the environment committee) or that are relevant to individual policy concerns.

Appointment to leadership positions: Policy seeking MEPs will seek to be appointed to party group leadership and committee chair/rapporteurship positions rather than national delegation positions.

Attendance (in plenary sessions and votes): Policy seeking  MEPs will only attend sessions/votes when issues of importance to their party family or their own policy goals are being addressed.

Attendance records:  Policy-seeking MEPs will primarily attend sessions/votes when issues of importance to their party family or their own policy goals are being addressed.